40s Superman has some of the greatest animation that no one ever talks about. It's extremely impressive, even today

40s Superman has some of the greatest animation that no one ever talks about. It's extremely impressive, even today.

It's very dated, but the animation, the colors, and the music gives it some impressive charm

youtube.com/watch?v=6xDcG79l7Rg

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/dDMQ3tXNKgM
youtube.com/watch?v=T2WVlmNqMMs
listverse.com/2012/10/08/top-10-pioneering-women-of-aviation/
youtube.com/watch?v=lDdwrYYTrAI
youtube.com/watch?v=dDMQ3tXNKgM
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

What did you expect from the studio that did Popeye?

spinach

I started this exact thread maybe 3 weeks ago.

But yeah, Fleischer Studios Superman is best superman.

KFC

I agree, it is a bit weird how no one really talks about it when it was essentially the BTAS of it's time.

So good! Thanks OP

The quality of animation is because the budget for the cartoons was so high.

Fleischer Studios didn't want to do the cartoons when Paramount came to them. So they quoted a budget four times that of a normal short for 1941, thinking Paramount would say no.

They said OK. So the Fleischers put the money into the animation, and it shows.

> that no one ever talks about

The Fleischer Superman cartoons have already been talked to death about here. It's universally regarded as pure awesome. Which is why we don't talk about it as much anymore; everything good that can be said about has already been said about it. All the praises heaped, all the angles covered.

>A woman flying a plane by herself
>a cartoon from the 40's

Did they ever get props for being progressive?

I need to pick up the cheap DVDs next time I see them at the dollar store.

At one point Lois gets a machine gun and starts shooting at Japanese spies. She's fantastic in these.

And don't forget this scene.

Lois Lane is legitimately the first mainstream action girl. It irritates me when she's characterized as nothing more than a damsel in distress waiting for Superman to rescue her.

youtu.be/dDMQ3tXNKgM

WHY. ..the hell....this is fantastic. Thamks OP.

The music was great too. Everything about this was amazing. People rarely talk about the 60's Superman either but I recently saw an episode and it was good, though not as good as this since they didn't have as much cash.

Favorite episode?

Why can't we have a Superman movie as good as these?

I think this demonstrates how incredibly hot the Superman franchise was back in the day.

That's because this shit cost the equivalent of a million dollars an episode at time.

And he's wearing that Feischer shield.

They are great, always have been. Perfect length to showcase the gorgeous animation and great sound design. Superman was exactly how you want him to be, and Lois was based.

The Mad Scientist has some of my favorite leitmotifs and music from the series, though in terms of actual content, it would have to be Billion Dollar Limited.

Special nod to The Eleventh Hour. Famous Studios content aside, there's just something about the atmosphere and the environment that just raises the tension.

Everybody's gonna say The Metal Monsters (and they're right) but I'm also fond of the one where Supes PUNCHES OUT A DEATH RAY

You could chalk that scene up to "They didn't know/care how science works", but I'm just a sucker for that Popeye-level snubbing of physical laws.

>superman is flying
>holds up a building
>is punching a lazerbeam
>"he's not human!"

I figured nobody talks about it because of how old it is and the fact it is generally liked

There's not much to say - it's amazing and has been recognized as such before any of us were born. That Jungle Drums sequence when the negroes are about to torch Lois is my fav.

And regarding machine gun Lois and Lois in general, I chuckled about feminism when I first watched this. It was always a load of shit. In that train ep the moment shit hits the fan Lois goes for the tommy gun and starts firing back. Her every action in the series was proactive and she gets herself into all sorts of trouble, but she was never a damsel in distress. Rather the trouble is beyond human means to address - like those undeground hawk people or the godtier mechanical monsters.

The whole series is just beautiful to watch and has a distinctive charm unmatched by other Superman series (I liked STAS and JL, JLU).

youtube.com/watch?v=T2WVlmNqMMs

BTAS very deliberately took inspiration from it

I lover her character in STAS but she really needs to be a part of the action more often

I didn't care for MoS but I loved the scene that may or may not have been an homage to the death ray punching

I haven't seen all of the yet but I liked the one with the guy who was impersonating Superman.

Someone gave a link to some nice, high quality stills from the FS serials

I only grabbed a few of them

If it weren't for all the apps in the way these would make nice wallpapers for my phone.

The cheap DVDs are actually crap. You'd be better off trying to get some of the remasters - they are still inexpensive.

National (DC Comics) for some reason didn't preserve their copyright on these so they fell into the public domain. A lot of the cheap DVDs you see are poor quality, some of them taken from the old copies sent out to independent and syndication broadcast stations.

The most recent remaster was done by WB for the Superman (Reeves-verse) bonus disk, but those were all Famous Studios, not Fleischer.

You might try eBay or some such for a bargain price on those.

You can move all your apps to the second and third screen (or more if you really have that many). I only have four, on the sheer bottom.

...

It's very uncanny (not outputting but feels off) compared to BTAS which is what I grew up with. Definitely comfy and I'm gonna check it out more. Thanks op

The animation is only impressive because they sank $500,000 (adjusted for inflation) per episode. They literally don't make 'em like this anymore because no one wants to pay that kind of money.

'course, cartoons serve a totally different purpose these days. They're far more disposable now, sadly.

Had Metal Monsters on VHS as a kid with one other episode that I can't seem to recall. But the Metal Monsters really spooked me out, from the shadows to the way they moved to the lighting near the lava and how it just pours all over Superman. I was really giddy when I saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow for the first time.

Didn't they use rotoscoping for these? Or was it something else?

They weren't doing anything that wasn't already reality.

listverse.com/2012/10/08/top-10-pioneering-women-of-aviation/

WB released a collection of all the shorts from the Reeves-verse collection as a standalone set, but the audio is pretty questionable on most of the shorts. They also felt the need to take the Paramount logo from the closing of the first short and attach it to the other 16 shorts in the set.

To me, this will always be Superman's theme
youtube.com/watch?v=lDdwrYYTrAI

It's reasonably cinematic and realistic, very uncharacteric of American animation. I wonder why the style never caught on.

Blame Hanna Barbara, I guess.

*uncharacteristic

There's this video essay I found about the influence the cartoon had, it's very interesting how much of an effect it actually had on the character of Superman and pop culture in general:

youtube.com/watch?v=dDMQ3tXNKgM

I still think about how crazy it is that this is how Superman got his ability to fly. Such a great thing. It's kind of annoying how many other heroes can fly though, wish they limited that so that Superman and others are seen as more powerful and rare comparatively.

Oh shit is that a M3 I see.

Can't beat Eaglemen that live underground

Action Lois is my waifu

Huh. Will check this out. Thanks user

And there hasn't been a better screen Superman since.

I'm on here nearly every day and have been for like two years and haven't seen it mentioned.

Then something must be up with your timezone because I've been on Sup Forums regularly since before Chocolate Rain and I've lost count how many time Fleischer Superman has come up for discussion.

>Paramount was interested in financially exploiting the phenomenal popularity of the then-new Superman comic books, by producing a series of theatrical cartoons based upon the character. The Fleischers, looking for a way to reject the project without appearing uncooperative, agreed to do the series—but only at a (intentionally inflated) per-episode-budget number so exorbitantly high that Paramount would have to reject them, instead. They told Paramount that producing such a conceptually and technically complex series of cartoons would cost about $100,000 (in 1940s dollars) per short; this was about four times the typical budget of a six-minute episode of the Fleischers' popular Popeye the Sailor cartoons of that period.[3] To the Fleischers' shock, instead of withdrawing its request, Paramount entered into negotiations with them, and got the per-episode budget lowered to $50,000.[4] Now the Fleischers were committed to a project they never wanted to do—with more financial and marketing support than they had ever received for the projects they had done.

Huh. That was neat.

Indeed, the 60's Superman/Superboy cartoon was good. You're right in pointing out that Filmation had absolutely no budget to work with (it was Saturday morning animation, after all), but the show was a monster hit for CBS, featured quick action-driven stories written by DC's writers, and also had Bud Collyer voicing Clark Kent/Superman. It was perfect for little kids and still is.

Amazing shorts. And if you aren't going to have a shirt rip shot, this is the way to go.

ayyyyyyy yoooooooo thats summmfinna

auyy yoooo that wuz krunk!!!

because that shit cost money, plus, white poeple.

blame pc jewish culture.

>white people
What?

weren't the fleischers jewish though?

I had random DVDs of the Fleischer Superman and Popeye shorts, always loved that old, kinda creepy style both had.

Different user and ive been here for two years too, all sorts of sleep schedules and have never seen this before either. It is never talked about. Dozens of comments in the thread about how this is new to them. Some could be summerfags but not all

You haven't been at the right times, but it's always nice too see some love for the classics.

They are fantastic. Art in the true sense of the word.

YOOO the Gucci Mane killed me hahahahaha

All of old school Hollywood was Jewish

I prefer to be on overnight cause we can get some euro comic stuff. Still never scene this. But that may be because i am looking for euro comic stuff.

BTAS is brought up a lot, this is the first i saw this show

I think it's kind of like Sandman or Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run, there are never any threads about certain works as if you're here you probably know about them and know or their high praise in animation or comics.

That being said, BTAS is discussed to death as probably all of Sup Forums grew up watching it and also because it's Batman and there's more than 13 15-minute episodes of the series to talk about, not mention its the foundation for the DCAU. So naturally theres more discussion about varying quality and character progression over various series, the effect on public perception of DC characters, new characters etc etc

>plane
>props
I see what you did there.

Blame television. Hanna Barbera were animating high quality shorts for theaters before moving to television, where they received a smaller budget to produce Scooby Doo compared to the money they received to animate Tom and Jerry.

Hanna and Barbera were. Both animators were at MGM making Tom and Jerry before getting shut down along with the rest of MGM Animation.
The H-B Studio, however, was made with the specific intention of cheapening animation for TV-suitable budgets.
Two different things.

It's seventy years old and there's no real plot to speak of. I'm not saying it's impossible to talk about, but why would you expect a thread every day?

Tell some stories. Did you read comics when you were young?

No one really expects daily threads, but a little more appreciation would be nice.

On the other end of the spectrum would be "Fleischer Superman General." So count your blessings.

This would look cool on blu ray.

because people don't believe in themselves, that they could create something beautiful.

This is from the 40s? Holy shit

I know right. I remember I had a VHS and thought it was from the 80's or early 90's the first time I saw them.

Why is both Fleischer and 60's Superman better than TAS? What's up with that?

>DC forgot to renew their own fucking copyright
You don't say?

The best part of these shorts is that they're just The Adventures of Superman with moving pictures to accompany the spoken words. I've never seen a more perfect transition from radio to the silver screen.

becuase millenials are bourgeoisie sjw/liberals/progressives and are a bunch of asshats.

That short with the gorilla was even more ridiculous than the others.

this. no one's doubting it's greatness but it becomes less impressive when you realize there's a direct correlation between budget and quality.

But animation isn't the only thing that makes it so good, it's just a part of it.

>despite his powers the cartoon still shows Superman struggling at times
>heroically saves the day while a heroic tune is playing
>Clark Kent winks at the camera
These are wonderful

You should check out the Live action serials as well. I kind of giggle on the inside everytime George Revves Jumps in the air and turns into a cartoon to take off

There are things to like in S-TAS, although I don't like mainly the power level decisions they made for the show and I'm not particularly fond of Livewire. The art is no where near as good, considering the advances in time and technical skills.

Paramount also badly needed a serial to compete with the other studios. They could package it with their films and more importantly, coming attractions for their future releases. It's the same thing studios like to do with popular releases - for example, sticking something ACTUALLY on the trailer for The Force Awakens or (for digital projection) actually forcing the theaters to agree to show XYX in front of their trailer.

Very nice

This on VHS was my first ever real exposure to Superman. Not Superfriends, not the Donner movies (didn't see those until I was a teen), not the comics or STAS. I must've watched The Mad Scientist over forty times.

Now I have all of the shorts on DVD. Dem's good watchin'.

This! This was actually my first taste of superman when I was a kid and I was born in 1990, my mom wanted me to grow up with good taste when it came to all kinds of media.

Did you also have that Superman toy with the magnet Kryptonite ring that made Superman fall over because the same charge magnet in him?

I wish I still had that fucking thing. Toy Biz DC figures were awesome.

in this he struggles to just beat up a bunch of guys or to lift a giant boulder
he is pretty underpowered compared to recent versions

The first Superman... The best Superman.. the Post Crisis ruin this character..

What's the best short?

Nellie Bly circled the globe in like 70 days and was also a war correspondent overseas during WWI

By the 40s, that shit was passé